EPILEPTIC: IN CONCLUSION
A post to the Comics Journal's message board by columnist Bart Beaty points out the recently released sixth and final volume of David B.'s "L'Ascension du Haut Mal," the first three volumes of which were collected in English as "Epileptic Vol. 1." Beaty paraphrases a summary of the volume's contents from French retail website BDNet.com: "This album takes David B. to art school, where he studies with Georges Pichard... and the book meets up with the dream stories from Le Cheval Bleme." In a July post to the Comics Journal's message board, Fantagraphics co-publisher Kim Thompson projected a summer 2004 release date for Epileptic Vol. 2. Translated pieces from David B.'s volume of dream comics have appeared in Zero Zero and in the Expo 2000 anthology.
INFO: The Comics Journal
INFO: BDNet.com
posted by Egon on Thursday, October 16, 2003

ANTICIPATING ANGOULÊME
BD website labd.com has posted preliminary program information for the 31st annual Festival International de la Bande Dessinée, running January 22 - 25, 2004 in Angoulême, France. This year's event is overseen by festival President Régis Loisel, winner of the 2003 Grand Prix. The 2004 Festival will include exhibitions of work by Dave McKean, Loisel and Joann Sfar. Visiting cartoonists Johan De Moor and Nix will give a presentation about L’École Sint-Lukas de Bruxelles (St. Luke's College, Brussels). Confirmed international guests include Enki Bilal, Cizo & Winschluss, Will Eisner, Scott McCloud, Dave McKean, Carlos Nine and Chris Ware. This year's invited foreign nation is Groland, a fictional nation depicted in an eponymous French television series. Theater group la Compagnie Le Sablier will perform a stage adaptation of Eisner's "The Building," BDSelection additionally reports.
INFO: labd.com
INFO: BDSelection
posted by Egon on Wednesday, October 15, 2003

THE ART SECTION
Today's New York Times "Arts" section surveys Art Spiegelman's recent projects, including "Little Lit" and the recently wrapped "In the Shadow of No Towers." Spiegelman continues to develop "Drawn to Death," his collaborative opera about the comics industry around the time of the Kefauver hearings. "Comics have the opportunity to find out what they can do better than movies, better than prose," says Spiegelman. "I think anybody who liked what I did in 'Maus' had to acknowledge that it couldn't have happened in any other idiom."
INFO: The New York Times
posted by Egon on Wednesday, October 15, 2003

STEIG REMEMBERED
The October 11 New York Times ran a piece by Jeanne Steig, William Steig's widow, reflecting on her husband's body of work and offering her own interpretations of some of the symbols found therein. "I'd say that Bill was a tragicomic artist, surely a difficult thing to be," Steig writes. "You have to feel both the truth and the grief of the truth, and find a way to present them with redeeming delight." The October 20-dated issue of the New Yorker includes a lengthy remembrance of William Steig by Roger Angell, who writes: "Another hundred-odd drawings, of every description, await publication, almost confirming an old impression that there would always be a fresh Steig in this new issue or the one next week." The New Yorker's back page is given over to Steig's work and the magazine's website features a slideshow with commentary by "longtime New Yorker art editor Lee Lorenz."
INFO: The New York Times
INFO: The New Yorker
posted by Egon on Monday, October 13, 2003

PEKAR BATTLES OBSCURITY
Editor & Publisher details the origin of "Obscurity Knocks," a new, twice-monthly column written by Harvey Pekar for the Journal News of White Plains, NY. The column will "shine a spotlight on things that are underappreciated or unjustly obscure," assistant features editor David Daley tells the magazine. The first of Pekar's columns, published October 9, profiles jazz musician Joe Maneri. Pekar's columns are available on the newspaper's website.
INFO: Editor & Publisher
INFO: The Journal News
posted by Egon on Monday, October 13, 2003

SMITHSONIAN COMIC-BOOK BOOK VOL. 2
The New College Press announces "From Zap to Maus to Clowes (The Dark Knight, Sandman & Dr. Manhattan too): A Second Smithsonian Book of Comic Book Comics" as part of its Fall 2003 - Spring 2004 publication schedule. The book is a follow-up to Michael Barrier and Martin Williams' 1981 volume, "A Smithsonian Book of Comic-Book Comics," and will be developed in association with the Smithsonian Institute Press. "The book will collect together some of the very best examples of Silver Age, Underground, Raw Generation, Dark Knight, and Contemporary comic book story telling." The Press also announces "Peacocks in Bloom: William Randolph Hearst & The Invention of American Popular Culture," promising an emphasis on comic strips carried by Hearst papers. The New College Press is directed by Bob Callahan who, among other credits, co-edited (with Art Spiegelman) the short-lived Neon Lit line for Avon Books. The Press website "will also become the permanent home for The Dark Hotel, and the many other new comix works created in recent years by Bob Callahan, in collaboration with artists Spain Rodriquez, Justin Green, Joe Sacco, Paul Mavrides and Hal Robins."
INFO: New College Press
posted by Egon on Sunday, October 12, 2003

KING ME
The Cincinatti Enquirer profiles Checker Book Publishing, whose recent reprint projects include a collection of Winsor McCay's early work. "On Oct. 16, the company plans to release reprints of Steve Canyon, the blond-haired, square-jawed Air Force pilot. Reprints of Flash Gordon and Dick Tracy will come out in November."
INFO: Cincinatti Enquirer
LINK: Checker Book Publishing
posted by Egon on Sunday, October 12, 2003

CHEECH WIZARD IN PAPER, PLASTIC
The San Francisco Chronicle surveys Vaughn Bodé's career and influence upon the release of a Cheech Wizard vinyl toy. According to the piece, Mark Bodé recently completed "Vaughn's last creation, 'The Lizard of Oz,' which is scheduled for a summer release through Fantagraphics Books."
INFO: San Francisco Chronicle
posted by Egon on Sunday, October 12, 2003